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How do I choose the most common or relevant data fields?
How do I choose the most common or relevant data fields?
Updated over a week ago

When preparing your data for self-import into Donor Management, you may not be familiar with the various fields that you can include. While some are clear - such as "full name" or "email" - you might have questions what other fields represent, or about what information is required and what is optional.

Below, we've listed all of the most common or relevant fields that you can include in a data import, as well as a brief description.

Looking for a more extensive list of all import fields available within a self-import? Click here.

Any fields marked with an * are required for your data to successfully be imported into the system.

Individual Contact Fields

  • *Full Name OR First Name*: While the first name is a required field for a contact record, you’ll want to enter the donor’s full name when possible. Donor Management will break the name down into the corresponding parts (such as prefix, first name, last name, etc.) when this field is present.

  • Last Name: This field can be used to list a contact's last name, if you haven't entered the full name of your contact already.

  • Email: Email addresses can be used as a unique identifier in Donor Management, so each contact record will require a unique primary email address. While email addresses aren’t a required field, we strongly recommend including them when possible.

  • Secondary Email: This field allows you to store a secondary email contact for a contact record. (This email address cannot be the same as the one entered in the "email" or "work email" fields.)

  • Mobile Phone: This field is where you should list a contact’s mobile phone number, especially if you have texting features enabled in Donor Management. If a mobile phone number is listed in a different phone number field – or if a home phone is listed in the mobile phone field – then the texting features won’t work correctly for that contact.

  • Home Phone: This field is where you can enter a contact’s home phone number – or a number that a contact uses as a home phone. (Please remember that any number placed in this field won’t be used in any texting features.)

  • Full Address: This field is where you can enter a contact’s home address; this field is also one of the ones used to automatically create households within Donor Management. (If you only have a partial address - such as the city and state - you'll instead want to use the other "address" fields listed below.)

  • Address: This field is where you can enter the first line of a contact's home address, such as house number and street name. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • Address 2: This field is where you can enter the second line of a contact's home address, such as their apartment or unit number. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • City: This field is where you can enter the city in which the contact lives. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • State: This field is where you can enter the state in which the contact lives. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • Zip Code: This field is where you can enter the zip code of the contact. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • Country: This field is where you can add the country in which the contact lives. (If you've entered the full address in the field above, you can omit this field.)

  • Employer: This field is where you can list a contact’s employer, if relevant to their donor history.

  • Group Name: This field is where you can list an existing group you'd like to add this donor's to. If you're adding a contact to multiple groups, you'll need to separate the group names by commas.

  • User Notes: This is where you can enter any additional information you'd like included in the "Notes" section on a contact's profile.

Donation Fields

  • *Email OR Contact ID*: In order to add a donation record, you must also include the email (or contact ID) of the donor; this is how the platform will recognize who to assign the donation to. (If you've already included your donor's email or full name within this specific import - such as if you're importing in contacts and donation records together - you don't need to include this information again.)

  • *Amount*: This field is where you should enter the amount of the donation. This field must have a positive number greater than zero, with no punctuation listed (other than a decimal point to differentiate dollars and cents) - so no dollar signs ($) should be included. (The exception to this rule is for in-kind donations - in which the amount can be listed as "0".)

  • *Donation Date*: This field is where you should enter a complete date of when the donation was made. If possible, we recommend putting the date in a YYYY/MM/DD format in this field.

  • *Payment Method*: This field allows you to indicate how the contact paid for a donation (such as through cash, check, credit card, etc.). If you aren’t sure, you can enter “other” in this field.

  • Payment Description: This field can include additional relevant information related to the description, such as a check number.

  • Campaign: This field is where you can enter a name of a campaign that this donation should correspond to. If this field is left blank, the donation will be listed as “uncategorized.”

  • Designation: This field, sometimes called “fund” in other systems, is where you can enter where this donation should specifically be allocated to.

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